The Latest News From Kenya On The Events Surrounding Sammy Wanjiru's Death
As the reality of the tragic death of 24-year-old Olympic Marathon
champ Sammy Wanjiru settled in, the world was left searching for
answers,
trying to understand the details surrounding Sammy's death and to ponder
whether it was preventable. At the same time, the Athletics World was
paying tribute to the greatest marathoner to grace the planet. Below we
have latest news on Sammy's death and in the middle column we have
athletes and commentators paying tribute to Sammy's career.

Worth A Read

Insurance Gone, Paralyzed Athlete Fights For His Life Track/football star Rocky Clark's insurance is up but he has a good attitude: "I realized things happen.
Life doesn't always give us what we expect. I've got a spinal-cord
injury, but there's nothing wrong with my brain. I've got a strong
spirit and courage. You've just got to learn to deal with it."

Simon Turnbull: At Last, Justice Catches Up With Greek Sprint Cheats After the verdict, Kenteris' lawyer said, "I am ashamed for my country." Considering the missed test in question was "the 3rd drug test the pair had
missed in 17 days" and "on the day they left hospital
police raided the premises of their coach and discovered 30 boxes of anabolic steroids and 1,400 boxes of supplements containing the banned stimulant ephedrine," we are ashamed for the lawyer.

LRCJohn Kellogg Explains How He "Predicted" The Unpredictable - A Sub-2:03:59 In Boston LetsRun.com's coaching guru explains the rationale behind his non-prediction that is making waves around the globe. Years of timed out-and-back and straight-shot tempos with the wind in Waco, Texas (and other
windy Texas venues) proved invaluable to his understanding
the
effects of the wind. JK took a stab at converting the Boston performances by Mutai and Hall to London and Berlin and even reveals what would happen if the Boston Mutai raced the London Mutai.

LRCEmmanuel Mutai Runs The Best 10km Ever In A Marathon To Destroy The Field & Arrive As One Of The World's Best
A lead pack that was a who's who of marathoning went through 30km together, but soon the race would be nothing but a coronation for Emmanuel Mutai, who destroyed the field with a 28:44 4th 10k and ended up with a 2:04:40 course record. Almost as big of a story as Mutai's
incredible run was the fact that the 2nd placer ended up being one of the all-time greats - Martin Lel - who shocked even himself in his first marathon since Beijing 2008. American Jason Lehmkuhle was the only elite American finisher as the three rookie American marathoners went out too fast and blew up - none worse than Mo Trafeh, who ran with the lead pack for 15 km.

LRCWomen's Marathoning Has A New Star Named Mary Keitany Keitany knocked nearly 10 minutes off her personal best and knocked Liliya Shobukhova off her pedestal as the best in the world, as Keitany
ran the first sub-2:20 since 2008 and made mincemeat of"undoubtedly" of the strongest women's field in London history. All together,
a record 22 women
broke 2:30 - but that didn't
include US Olympian Magdalena Lewy-Boulet.

One For The Ages In Boston: Desiree And The Fastest Marathon Ever Run "Unbelievable" is probably the best way to describe the 2011 Boston Marathon.
First, American
Desiree
Davila, off the back of the lead pack multiple times, was gutsy as hell,
battling for the win with Caroline Kilel down the final straight. There were 4 lead changes on the final straight before Kilel came out on top. In the men's race, American Ryan Hall ran 2:04:57 and lost by nearly 2 minutes. Yes, ladies and gentleman, Geoffrey
Mutai and Moses Mosop ran faster than anyone else ever before the in the marathon, 2:03:02 and 2:03:06 respectively, thanks in part to 20 mph tailwinds. Mutai cemented his status as the strongest runner on the planet with the win. We give you some post-race comments below but purposely are holding off discussing the wind.LRC: Wejo Speaks: Desiree Davila Inspires Us All At The 2011 Boston Marathon She had the entire press room and Alberto Salazar yelling for her.LRC: Men's Post-Race Reaction The top 4 were all pleased with their blazing fast times. Ryan Hall summed up the magical day: "I am running 2:04
pace and I can't even see the leaders."LRC: 2011 Boston Marathon Post-Race Reaction From Desiree, Caroline And Kara

LRC: Desiree Davila Looking For Respect In Boston Davila finished one spot behind Kara Goucher at the last World Championships in the marathon, and she's hoping to finally
get
out of Kara's shadow at Monday's Boston Marathon. LetsRun.com has spent the last six years getting a mole into the Hansons-Brooks team, and now thanks to him we have this inside look at Desiree's preparations for Boston, which has included a 123-mile week. Article and video interview plus some video of the Hansons-Brooks training runs.

LRC: Shalane Flanagan Gets Bronze The Olympic bronze medallist and ING NYC Marathon runner-up ran a stellar race to snatch the bronze versus a star-studded field. Flanagan appeared to be dropped with 2km to go, but dug deep to stay in contention and battle back for the bronze. World 5,000m champ Vivian Cheruiyot pulled away from World 10,000m
champ
Linet Masai for gold. The American women did very well to get a repeat bronze medal.

The Greatness Of You (And Us)

LRC Spring Marathon Contest Recap: The Greatness Of YouOne of our favorite things at LetsRun.com is recapping our prediction contest because we get to highlight you - the interesting people who make our site so successful. Our Boston and
London Marathon prediction contest was no different, as the winners include a guy who is currently making a film on Kenyan distance runners, "The
Greatest Distance Runners On Earth," a guy whose college buddies bet him he couldn't finish a marathon and he ended up running 2:43 on 18 weeks of training, and a guy who was coached in high school by a guy who lived at one time at the LetsRun.com headquarters (proving that three degrees of separation exist in the running world).

LRC The Greatness Of You, Continued - And A Thank YouAs little LetsRun.com keeps getting bigger and bigger, running laps around the competition, and starts decade #2 dreaming of a million unique monthly visitors, we just wanted to take a minute to thank you - our loyal visitor.

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Training Advice

Advice From The Pros

Top 10 Training Tips
LetsRun.com's Weldon Johnson gives his top 10 training tips in this letsrun.com classic when the site first launched. They helped him knock 1:22 off his 10k PR in one race and will definitely help you, too.

No Shortcuts
LetsRun.Com coaching consultant John Kellogg outlines his basic coaching approach and gives the four principles to correct training for elites. LetsRun.com co-founder Robert Johnson translates Mr. Kellogg's approach so that it is beneficial for the masses.

Wejo Speaks:

Why I Sucked In College Perhaps Wejo's most popular training article ever. Wejo explains why he was only a mediocre college runner, yet ended up running 28:06 for 10k.

Highlights From Our Archives

Kenya:

LetsRun.com's Wejo went to Kenya for the World XC Championships and then he toured the country and explored the secrets of some of the Kenyan greats. See some of his insights on this incredible country.

Controlled Chaos Read about incredible one-of-a-kind 2007 World XC Championships in Mombasa, Kenya. Tens of thousands of people packed like sardines, hanging in trees, in oppressive heat, all
to
see the Cross-Country Championships for the first time in Kenya. There will never be a party like this one again.